Factions (Season 4)
'Factions (Season 4)' In the hundred years since the fall of Istraza, the landscape of the world has changed. With it, the sides have been redrawn, and old friends have become new enemies. Darkness falls upon the land once again, and the single light in the world rises up in defiance of an implactable foe. Rebellion: against corruption, against tyranny, against annihiliation itself. Whose side will you choose? 'Boss Factions' The armies of the Emperor. 'The Imperial Service' The Imperial Service have always been staunch defenders of Crown and Country. They stood by the First Emperor as he expanded his Empire, they fought on the front lines when the Empire eradicated the Valhalla's Chosen, and they valiently defended the Arcanists when their experiments caused an uproar amongst the beleagured populace. They are warriors and sages, they are thugs and enforcers, they are the iron fist of cruel tyranny. They are as they have always been: a sword, cutting without question or hesitation. Now the hand that holds this blade is the Traitor Emperor, and now it cuts deep and it cuts often. None among the Service have begun to stop and ask why. The Royal Arcanists The Arcanists were without purpose after the fall of Istraza. Fortunately, the expanding Empire had need of their services, and they quickly adapted to meet the ever-growing demands of a country thirsty for innovation and cultural superiority. The Empire had little need for scruples in their newfound researchers, and the Arcanists barely had any to begin with. Instead, they simply continued as normal, with the justification of saving the world neatly replaced by a belief that the knoweldge itself was worth any cost paid; especially if the cost was paid by someone else. 'The Dark Wardens' These are the corrupted remnants of the Order of the Wardens. After the destruction of the Malkah the Swamplord, the Wardens swore to protect the realm against any evil. They served well for many decades, but always opposed the Arcanist's chaotic lust for magical power. This did not serve the interests of the Empire, and, bit by bit, the Wardens were stripped of their power. "Magistrates" and "auditors" were installed throughout the Warden's heirarchy, supposedly to assist oversight. These foul agents began questioning the necessity of certain sacred oaths and practices, and started replacing them with more and more radical beliefs. Over time, the only honest men and women among the Wardens were removed from all power, and the Dark Cult was born in the ashes. Now they rule as a militant church, screaming in the streets in praise of the Shadow Dragon and the Traitor Emperor. 'Player Factions' The factions of the Great Rebellion, under the Exile Prince. 'The Lion's Wrath' The abuses of the Imperial people are beyond count. Powerful nobles enslave their population to build symbols to their own extravagance. The Royal Factories consume lives as much as they do ore, with deadly conditions and brutal labor demands, as likely to maim and kill as they are to really build the trappings of the wealthy. Children throughout the realm are raised in filth and poverty, while the aristocracy grows fat. No more! The people of the Empire remember a brighter past! We remember the days before the "revolutions" of the First Emperor, before the corruption of the Wardens and the creation of the monsterous Arcanists! We remember a pure Empire, an Empire that protected its citizens, that existed to support a better world! Even as our leaders exile their kin and slaughter their opponents, we remember a world without tyranny! We will remember no more! Today, we will rebuild! Rise up, people of the Empire! Rise up from the ashes that have been heaped upon us! Rise up from the ghettos, rise up from the slums, rise up from the distant woods and the blackened earth from which we have been forced to subsist! Rise up, and take back your lands! Rise up, and make our cruel dictators fear the Lion's Wrath! 'The Order of the Lightbringers' When the Arcanists were folded into the Empire, there were no restrictions placed on their experiments. No codes or laws were established to limit their power, or the harm they could bring. No trial was too dark, or too dangerous, or too harmful, not if the result was progress. Even as the servants that had carried out their dark deeds were punished for the pain they brought to the people of the Arcane Scar, the magister lords that had given the orders went untouched. Not everyone agreed. Certain members of the Arcanists believed that what they had done, the horrors they had unleashed and sought to bind, were unforgivable. They would gladly have accepted the judgement, but when they learned of the mass pardons, they compared the weight of their sins to some of the men and women who were walking free: unanimously, they found the scale tipping against them. Would it be right for those still carrying a scrap of conscience to walk to the gallows, while the merciless and the mad continued forward unopposed? Only they knew of the true crimes of the Arcanists, and if they were to be locked away or executed, then there would be none willing to bring the remainder to justice. Thus, an accord was wrought. The few members of the Arcanists competant enough to be pardoned but good enough to hate themselves for it banded together into a new order: a secret society, dedicated to opposing the Arcanists and destroying them all, as well as creating true and honest accounts of the Arcanists' activities so that others could oppose them in their stead. This organization was called the Order of the Lightbringers, and they have fought a secret war against the pet monsters of the Empire for generations. The Lightbringers of today are mired in secrecy and ritual privacy. The cost of fighting the Arcanists is to understand them, and the Order has been forced to adopt many of the Arcanists' advances to properly fight them, and even make a few secret developments of their own. Now, they are the most talented technicians and connected agents of the Great Rebellion, with many of their number among the landed aristocracy and hidden in the Royal Arcanist laboratories. They are also the oldest part of the Rebellion, and take great pride in their history of opposition to a cruel world. They are, ironically, a fitting heir for the Arcanist cause, if not the Arcanist methodology. 'The Broken Saints' The Wardens were a shattered order years ago, but the tragedy that they have become under the Traitor Emperor is truly monsterous. A few years ago, the decendents of the original Wardens that fought to defeat Malkah emerged from their self-imposed exiles, congregating in the plaguelands of their grandparents. There, upon the dessicated remains of the great monster that so defined their ancestral order, they rediscovered their purpose. The Shadow Dragon might be dead, but there is still darkness in the world. It isn't the nature of a monsters to be monsterous, but rather a seductive path down which one eventually walks: when one decides that there is nothing worse than oblivion, so everything is permitted in order to survive, they have become the monster they are fighting against. The world deserves something better than merely survivors.